FAMOUS RACING STUDS OF THE LAST THIRTY YEARS. 



631 



be his last visit to a racecourse. His speech on breeding and high fees will never 



be forgotten in the House of Commons. "After you have paid these fees," he said, 



"the mare will come smilingly up to you the following year no more in foal than 



I am now," and he passed his hand over his long spare figure, to the great amusement 



of his hearers. He brought off his best betting coups with William Day, his classic 



races with John Porter; and perhaps the fastest animal "the old firm" ever owned 



was Friar 's Balsam, a smashing two-year-old son of Imperatrice, the pretty sister 



of Imperieuse. . St. Blaise may have largely owed his Derby to C. Wood's fine riding, 



but he was certainly not sold to Mr. 



A. Belmont, of New York, because he 



was "one of the worst that ever won;" 



and, as may be seen from the trial 



above recorded, he was a good bit in 



front of the winners of the previous 



Derby and Oaks, carrying less than 



weight for age, which certainly seems 



to indicate that he was good enough 



to be victorious himself in nine years 



out of ten. Not very long after this 



Mr. Brodrick Cloete joined the stable, 



and soon made his mark with Cherry, 



by Sterling out of Cherry Duchess, 



who won the Kempton Grand Prize, 



the Epsom Grand Prize, and walked 



over for the Knowsley Dinner Stakes 



at Epsom. Another of Mr. Cloete's 



was the famous colt by Sterling out of 



Casuistry, so happily named Paradox, who was bought for 450 guineas by Captain 



Bowling when he and Porter were attending the sale of Yardley yearlings in 1883. 



He was difficult to train ; but his first trial over six furlongs against the Rebecca 



colt, Whipper-in, Reprieve, and Siren, so impressed the Duke of Westminster 



that he became His Grace's property at 6,000 guineas. It was perhaps a sinister 



omen that he ran a dead heat for third in the Middle Park Plate, which Melton 



won, but he never made up the ground he lost at the start ; and his next race, the 



Dewhurst Plate, he won in a canter, and Mr. Cloete's confidence in buving him from 



From a drawing by 

 Jane . Cook. 



Mr. Matthew Dawson. 



